There are many medical imaging techniques currently used for diagnosis, include computerized tomography (CT), nuclear spectroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), which can provide the non-invasive medical image of a target in the patient. Some of the above techniques require radioactive imaging agents to be used in conjunction, such as PET. The radioactive imaging agents interact with the tissue(s) in the target region of the patient, thereby allows the tissue(s) that contains the agent to be detected using a detector.
The x-ray based imaging techniques, such as CT, detects the x-rays penetrated, attenuated, and/or scattered by the target region, on a medium that is opposite of the x-ray source, such as x-ray sensitive film or photonic detector. These x-ray based imaging techniques, however, do not account for all of the photons directed at the target region. Applicant of the subject application determines that secondary x-ray beams, such as scattered x-ray, may hold valuable imaging data that has not been utilized.